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The Government has set out of what it calls the biggest reform of Special Education Need services in a green paper published today by  Department of Education.

The proposed reforms would see parents having more control over the services that are being provided to their children including a pledge to hand them personal budgets by 2014.

The Department of Education document suggests that care workers would help parents on how best their personal budgets can be used. However, the government has emphasised only those parents who choose to have control over their personal budgets would be given one.

The reforms would also replace the existing complex system of needs assessment with a more family friendly assessment and the green paper envisions a key role for the voluntary sector in assessing needs as well as delivering services. The government wants a more integrated approach in delivering SEN services which would bring together schools, health and social care.

The government has also laid out plans to scrap the existing "school action" and "school action plus" which currently cover most children with SEN and replace them with one single school based system which would be focused on raising attainment.

Children’s minister Sarah Teather said: "We have heard time and time again that parents are frustrated with endless delays in getting the help their child needs, and by being caught in the middle when local services don’t work together. The new single assessment process and plan will tackle this issue."

The Government's approach has been welcomed by children's charities however teaching unions are concerned about the spending gap.

Barnados Chief Executive Anne Marie especially welcomed the "holistic" approach and said in the long term this would save money for the public purse however she too expressed her concerns about having adequate financial resources to implement the proposed system effectively.

The Local Government Association pointed out that the government has already cut funding for early years by 25% and said that for the new system to be effective it would need to "sufficiently funded".

Christine Bower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers felt it is "inappropriate" to suggest that the voluntary sector can fill the gap left by the spending gap.

The Labour party has welcomed a simpler system but argued that the government's "own health and education reforms" would make it difficult to implement the new system.